Madness ?
by Angelica R
Summary: [Break the vicious circle – Missing moment] : A discussion between Belle and Henry, before the curse was broken, with their thoughts about the situation. (Is more or less situated during chapter 10). Slight mention of the SwanQueen in the end.


Madness ?

[Break the vicious circle – Missing moment] : A discussion between Belle and Henry, before the curse was broken, with their thoughts about the situation. (Is more or less situated during chapter 10). Slight mention of the SwanQueen in the end.

It had been since some time that Henry was there, and Belle was worried. She didn't know why, but the recent events didn't gave her the desire to be confident for the future.

Henry was a kind young man, and she appreciated him, it's true, but… she was afraid.

Afraid of what he could do, afraid…

Just afraid, simply.

It was the reason why she tried not to be with the same room as him when he was there, or not to let Gideon with him.

It was normal.

After all, he just left the psychiatric hospital, he wasn't dangerous, Belle knew it, Gold told her, but it didn't change the story. Henry was in this place since…

Since many time ?

She forgot it.

Since forever, maybe, or almost.

And she knew that in a way, she shouldn't do that, he was just a kid.

A kid who was almost an adult, and who believed in fairy tales…

Of course she was afraid.

 _§§§§_

Henry was… different.

Not in the sense of strange, or particular, no.

He seemed to be more sane, there was a new light in his eyes.

It was easy for Belle to recognize hope.

She wouldn't blame him for that, and she understood it.

He found his father, who wouldn't have been happy of that ?

But it didn't stop her from being afraid.

As Henry was alone, as his father was in another place, she had no other choice but talk with him.

It lasted for a time, until Belle had a move of recoil as Henry's hand almost touched hers, and then, a light of pain appeared in the eyes of the Author.

He smiled, in the same bitter and cold smile that froze Gold some years ago when he came to see his grand-son in the hospital.

"You don't trust me, right ?"

Henry knows that he shouldn't feel hurt by this, that it's normal, and that Belle is cursed.

(But his father is cursed too, but despite it, he finally understood the truth.)

Belle, as for her, is trapped between fear and sympathy.

She perfectly knows that her fear is irrational, stupid, and disproportioned.

But the fear, a visceral and incomprehensible fear takes her, despite what Gold told her.

"This is not that simple Henry, whispers Belle."

It doesn't stop Henry from suffering. Belle is a part form his family, the only one he still has, with Gold and Neal, so if she rejects him, if he scares her, well, _he will have almost nothing_.

Except a weak hope, that maybe, everything isn't lost.

 _§§§§_

"So explain me."

Belle starts, but Henry's look is serious. He wants to understand, he wants answers, he wants to know why he scares her so much.

(He thinks he already understands, but he wants to hear her say it.

It may be hurt him more, but it doesn't matter.

He is used to pain.)

"You were locked in a psychiatric hospital, you believe in fairy tales, even if, according to your grand-father, it's not the case any more. (Internally, Henry had a fixed grin. He is cured from his belief. Yeah, that's right… or not.) But it doesn't change the fact that I don't know you, and that… you could be not really stable mentally.

\- You think I'm crazy ?"

Belle, lost in her thoughts, doesn't see Henry's hands trembling, as an atrocious smile appears on his face. A haunted smile coming from a memory that happened ten years ago.

From a period where he was almost alone.

When none of his mothers believed in him.

This sentence he already said before had kind of an echo that reminded him of the past.

(A bad past.)

"No, I don't think that. Henry, I am afraid, not only of you, but also about my son. What you could do to him."

A real smile appeared on Henry's face. So, it was that. She was afraid for Gideon. It relieved him, in a way.

(If she knew that at a time, he was afraid for his mother, _because_ of Gideon.)

It's okay for him in fact, because this fear will be easy to make disappear.

Belle tells him that she knows that it is an insane fear, that if Neal and Gold are sure that he is fine, well, she doesn't have to be afraid, and she says that she _understands._

She says that, and again, Henry wants to smile.

No, she doesn't understand, he thinks.

What Belle doesn't know, is that, some years ago, Henry saw something he will never forget.

She doesn't know that, someday, Henry finally learned the truth, that his mother was there, fighting for him.

She doesn't know that then he hoped again, knowing that _she_ _believed_ or, at least, that she was there to save him.

She doesn't know that he ran, one day, to find her.

She doesn't know that he arrived too late, that he ran as much as he could, in vain.

She doesn't know that he saw his mother, lying on the ground, dead, after she jumped from the roof.

She doesn't know what he saw, the blood, the death, and the coldness _(oh her hands, so cold, so cold_ …)

She doesn't know the despair that he felt, and that he still feels.

She knows nothing.

 _§§§§_

"I changed Belle, answers then Henry. I don't believe in fairy tales any more."

He lies, for the first time, but it's for the good cause.

Belle seems to have doubts, but she wants so much to believe that she listens to him.

And he talks about what they can all accept as true.

The cruelty of his supposed mother, and what she did to Emma, and there, Belle begins to understand that there is something wrong in this town.

She apologizes, for being so blind, for doing nothing, and she feels a surprising relief when Henry smiles to her, and she takes his hand, and suddenly, things seem to be better.

Belle isn't afraid any more of Henry now, and she understands that her husband did the good choice, and she decides to help this kid who is not really one any more, and he needs her help.

None of them sees the two ghosts, Emma and Regina, looking at them with tenderness. They don't see how close they are to each other, they don't see the hand that interlace, and then, the mouths that touch each other.

They don't see the moved look of the two mothers, nor the "thank you" they address to Belle.

If they were alive, they could be a part of this family.

(It's too bad that they are not.

Later, it will happen, and the two women kiss one last time before vanishing.

Henry is safe, at least, for now.)

Belle feels strangely good after this conversation, persuaded that she made the good choice.

There is no madness in Henry, now, she knows it.

There is a just a great pain.


End file.
